(: How to Grow Psilocybe Cubensis in Your Own Home :) Brought to You by: The Seeker (C) 1989 ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? What do we need to grow magic mushrooms? Well here is a list of all the necessary items to grow yn: 1) Fertile Psilocybe cubensis spores. 2) About twenty sterile plastic petri plates. 3) Malt-Agar medium. 4) Alcohol lamp containing methyl or grain alcohol.(Alcohol wipes do fine as well.) 5) Inoculating loop.(Wire bent in a loop with a handle is good.) 6) Agar knife. 7) Test tubes. Filled one-third with grain ( birdseed ) and plugged with cotton. 8) Two lbs. of compost. It should be cow manure, preferably leached, although you can also use natuod-based composts such as Douglas Fir mulch or pine mulch. 9) Casing soil. It should be a bag of peat moss mixed with a cup of lime. 10) A big can of Lysol or other disenfectant. 11) A glass container at least 10 ounces or 300 ml which can be plugged with cotton, capped with alufoil and pressure-cooked. 12) Pressure cooker. The smallest size, 10 1/2 liquid quarts, can be used, and it should have a pregauge. Almost all of these items can be ordered by these companies: Fungi Perfecti P.O. Box 7634 Olympia, WA 98507 206-426-9292 Mushroom people Box 159 Inverness, CA 94937 415-663-8504 HOMESTEAD (They sell $50 mushroom kits.) P.O. Box 31608 Seattle, WA 98103 206-782-4532 ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? (: MATERIAL PREPARATION AND WORK SPACE :) To begin, start with a clean table top, plastic or formica, in an area free from drafts. Wipe the tith Lysol, and when doing transfer work, cover your nose and mouth with either a hankerchief orasria mask so you don't breathe germs onto the sterile media. To insure sterile conditions, you may wish to use a transfer chanber. A transfer chanber can eitherrchased or constructed out of simple materials, plywood, glass or plastic for the top, and a clt nrwy. If cardboard is used, line the inside with aluminum foil to protect the chamber from brnngwhn ouuse the alcohol lamp. The box need not be air tight, the idea is to prevent contamintio frm daft an breathing on the media. The inside of the box should be wiped down with Lysol nd yur hnds hownbe ceaned with Lysol before putting them into the box. Gloves may be used if yur hads ar senstive o strng chemicals. (: STERILIZING MALT MEDIUM AND POURING :) Next, we prepare the medium, or food substances, on which the mycelium will grow. Place the malt-agium into your flask or bottle and add eight ounces, or 250 ml of water. Stir or shake slightly Te lg the flask or bottle with cotton and cap it with a piece of aluminum foil. Now put the flask into the pressure cooker on the rack or trivet provided with the cooker. Turn on at and bring the cooker up to fifteen pounds. Keep it there for twenty to twenty-five minutes. oio he process in order to keep the cooker at the proper pressure and to make sure you don't oerhet. Ate twenty minutes, turn the heat off and let it cool down to zero pressure naturally. o nt rleae te pessure. Wipe down your transfer area, either the table or chamber, and place the petri plates inside your chor on your table. Using a mitten, take your flask out of the cooker and place it next to the ptipae. Throw away the aluminum foil. You are now ready to pour the medium into the plates. Remove the cotton and grasp the flask with your mittened right hand. With your left hand, take a peate and hold it slightly open. Pour the medium into the plate, just covering the bottom surfac n hnclose the plate. Repeat the process for nine more plates and set aside to cool. Before yu o nt te ext step, you may want to let the plates sit for a few days to check for contaminatio. f, fte tw das, you notice anything other than tannish-brown medium in the plate, discard tha plae. ow yu ar reay to streak the plates with spores. (: SPORE STREAKING :) To keep spores fertile they should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place. The spores should remain vfor at least six month, perhaps indefinitely. Wipe your table or transfer chamber with Lysol; also wipe your hands. You should have the petri disth cooled medium inside the area. Light the alcohol lamp, and have your inoculating tool bent noalo and ready to use. Remove the piece of paper containing spores and place it face up on th tbl. Open one of the petri plates, holding the top right over the medium to prevent contamination. Flamenoculating loop, then cool it by placing it in one part of the medium on the plate. Scrape som prsof the paper with your loop and smear them in an 'S' configuration onto the medium in your eti lae. Imediately close the plate and proceed to the next one. I recommend that you streak to t for pate. ou want to save the rest for two reasons: 1) The germination might not take. 2) The plates might be contaminated. If this happens, repeat the entire process. (: INCUBATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF CULTURES :) Set aside your inoculated plates in a warm area, approximately 70 to 75 degrees F. A heating pad or is useful for maintaining this temperature. In ten days to two weeks, you should notice a snow-white, fluffy, cottony growth on your plates. Ththe psilocybe mycelia. In a few more days, it should develop long threads, ropey fibres reachigott he outside of the plate. At the end of two to three weeks, the entire plate should be covre wthths ure-white mass. Chances are you will have some contamination also. Do not be discouraged; it's a common hazard and ason you work with more than one petri dish. Contamination takes many forms. The two most como r eicillium and neurospora, or bread mold. Pencillium will appear as a dark green spot, the in yu eeonstale bread, and it can be dealt with in two ways: 1) If the white mycelia overgrows it, you can flame your knife and cut out the contamiarea. 2) Or, if the penicillium overruns your plate, it is wise to discard the entire petri Neurospora is a grey-white hairy mass, darker than the psilocybe mycelia, of a type you also see on This is a very strong fungus, if discovered discard the entire dish. Other contaminants are dealt with in the same way, and if you wish to identify them we suggest you che photographs in 'Growing Wild Mushrooms' by Bob Harris. (: TRANSFER AND ISOLATION OF PURE CULTURE :) Again wipe down your transfer area, clean your hands, and light your alcohol lanp. On the table youd have your petri plates grown out with mycelia and the other six plates which contain only meda Faethe knife, cool it in the unused media, and cut out a small section of mycelia. Stab the mal iee f ycelia and place it in the middle of a plate containing only growing media and cover he ishquikly Transfer these sections into three more dishes, and incubate again as indicated in the previous sectAllow a few weeks to grow out and you are ready to transfer to the spawn. If you have any diffclyo ontamination, remember you have twelve dishes left that you haven't streaked yet, so if yo hveprblmsrepeat the streaking process and begin again. If you have gotten this far, you isolated a pure culture, one that will be easy to maintain and makipossible to not having to return to spores for several generations. You are now ready to starttesan (: PREPARATION OF SPAWN :) Our spawn medium can be rye or other grains, but I use a combination of milo and millet, commonly usbird seed. Make sure your test tube is filled with one third grain. Then add half again an amount of water. P cotton back in the test tube, cover it with aluminum foil and place it on a trivet in your presr okr. Follow the cooking procedure as indicated in the section sterilizing malt medium. Take the test tube out of the cooker, shake up the grain inside and put it aside to cool. Transfer celium from the petri plate to the grain in the same manner as indicated in the previous sectio. e sde the test tubes at 70 to 75 degrees F. to incubate. After three to four days, shake up hegrininth tube and allow another seven or eight days for the mycelium to spread through the grin. One te gainis completely run through with fluffy, white mycelium, you are ready to use it t innculae th comost. If you notice anything that looks like contamination, begin again by inocuatinganothr tes tube (: INOCULATION AND INCUBATION OF COMPOST :) Break up the grain in the test tube eith by shaking it or using chopsticks, and spread the mixture ie compost. You can inoculate and incubate the compost in a flower pot or plastic container. An excellent method is to put the compost in a tray and place it in a fish tank with a loose lid. Fsture and humidity control, put wet cat litter in the bottom of the tank. The compost should b lgtywet, so that you can squeeze it in your hands and it will leave a faint mark on your hands f ousqeee out water it is too wet and if you can't feel or see a mark on your hands it is toodry I a eekto en days, the compost should be completely run through, full white, with mycelia. Maitaina colishtemprature, perhaps between 65 and 75 degrees F. for this process. We keep it his col beause he myelia enerates a lot of heat when it grows out and heat will kill it. You kow it' too wrm whe you ntice ayellowing of the mycelia and a yellow liquid around and through te growig media That eans its dyingand you might have to begin again. Some misting might be required to maintain moisture. Once the mycelia is run through, spread a one-o one inch layer of casing soil on top of the compost. This will induce fruiting. (: FRUITING AND PICKING :) Place the compost/casing mixture in a closet free from drafts but allowing some circulation. Put ther a normal flourescent light and leave on a typical day/night schedule. The lights can be lef ncniually although I don't recommend it, nor do I recommend incandescent lights. Maintain a 65 to 75 degree F. temperature and keep the casing soil slightly moist as noted earlier we compost. In a week to ten days, tiny pinheads will appear on the casing soil and will soon bgnt pout mushrooms. At this point. the mushrooms will grow rapidly, just as it is not unusual o eea uly-prouted mushroom on your lawn almost overnight. Wait until the caps break the veil and then pick, scooping them out from the bottom with a chopstick can wait until the cap flattens out and the mushroom gets bigger, but at this point the mushrom ilbgin throwing spores on the growing surface and this may inhibit later flushes. Mushrooms holdspou fr about four or five days in abundance, then over the next week or ten days you will otie to t for mre flushes. The mushrooms in these later flushes will be smaller and less abundnt. At tis pint our rowing medium is exhausted. (: MAINTAINING THE CULTURE :) You now have a basket of mushrooms and a pure culture in your petri dishes with which to grow again.if you have lost the culture, you can clone the mushrooms you have by taking flesh from it. Thspoesis described in 'Growing Wild Mushrooms' by Bob Harris. I hope you all have an electric ride and the walls melt like butter in a microwave with your home-grshrooms. Now I would like to thank the people who made this file possible: HomeStead's Deluxe Shroom Kit, Ale of course Mother Nature! X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X .